


Outsider's Honor

by Kestrel_sama



Category: Dishonored (Video Game)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-04
Updated: 2014-01-30
Packaged: 2017-12-25 14:18:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 16,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/954117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kestrel_sama/pseuds/Kestrel_sama
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based off the "good" ending of Dishonored, this tale takes place years after Emily has taken her place on the throne. Corvo has aged considerably, and thinks to live out his days in the palace. But for the first time in ages, the Outsider brings Corvo to the Void and makes him a very strange offer...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Choice Made

**Author's Note:**

> This started out as a one-shot fluff!drabble, but as I have more chapters in the works, I guess it's not really a drabble anymore. PLEASE NOTE: This is a fanfiction of a fictional universe and fictional characters. Future chapters (starting in chapter 3) will contain m/m sex, tentacle play, bdsm, and fluff. I try to keep the players "in character", but as Corvo and the Outsider don't have a sexual relationship in the game, there WILL be some amount of OOC-ness. I like to mix plot and sex in equal measure. If you have an issue with any of these things, kindly see yourself out the door. If not, enjoy!

Fog swirled around him, and he walked through cobblestone streets that floated in nothingness. A whale cried and lumbered past, swimming through a sea of stars and broken mist. He watched it go in silence and kept walking.

This place...he hadn't dreamt of the void in years. A glance at his reflection in a puddle of water showed him as he had been the last time he'd come here...young, agile, and with the mask Piero had made for him resting in one hand, like he'd just removed it.

"Corvo. How long has it been?" The Outsider purred, startling him into stillness.

The road had been clear, and suddenly the man was there, as pale and darkly beautiful as the day he'd first pulled Corvo into this world.

He couldn't answer of course, voice caught in his throat at the sight of him. The one who had given him the power to save Emily and see her on the throne. The one who had haunted his dreams all these long years.

The one he'd secretly yearned to see just once more, as if to convince himself that the Outsider wasn't a plague-born fever dream.

He wasn't, of course. His gifts remained with Corvo, and his mark had never faded. It had seemed to grow darker in fact, these past few weeks, even as his body had begun to fail him.

Black eyes seemed amused as they stared into his soul, and the faintest smile seemed to touch his lips. "Don't look so surprised. Did you think that any other would come for you, when you wear my mark with such loyalty? "

"...come for me?" Corvo rasped, cutting to the pertinent words, rather than lingering over the way he'd said "loyalty".

The Outsider's arms crossed over his chest, and his head cocked curiously. "Surely you know you're dying?"

Corvo nodded once, glad that he couldn't feel the way his body ached, while in his dreams.

"Good. I brought you here, because I've decided to offer you a choice: You can die, and I'll release your spirit into the ether. You'll eventually be reborn, and a lifetime of struggle will begin anew. Or..."

The almost-smile was back, and Corvo couldn't help but be enraptured with it.

"...you can stay here, at my side."

Corvo blinked. This wasn't an offer he'd expected. "To what end?"

The Outsider shrugged slightly, seeming almost...too casual...if that were possible for the deity. "To whatever end you choose. I've no need for a bodyguard, or assassin, but...you've always fascinated me. I'd like to watch you a while longer."

Corvo looked out at a lamppost glowing dimly on a floating shard of street, mind working through all the possibilities, and dismissing the more outlandish ones. "How many others who have received your mark get this choice?" He wondered aloud.

"None. But then...none of them were you. Even Daud, who was one of my favorites did not get to choose."

He couldn't repress the shiver that rolled through him at the tone of those words as they invaded every corner of his mind. The Outsider hadn't moved, but he seemed closer....he felt closer. Like a breath you could feel on the back of your neck, or a hand hovering just over your shoulder before it falls to clasp you.

"You can't see what I'll decide?" Corvo asked curiously, delaying the moment that he'd have to let the experiences of this life dictate the trajectory of his soul. 

The Outsider closed his eyes briefly. "No...for all my age and power, I've never been able to predict your actions, Corvo. That's part of why you intrigue me."

He'd guessed as much...little comments here and there that had left him wondering, left him curious, and that had also left him aching with a strange hunger for more.

An unsettled corner of his mind wondered if he'd ever see the Outsider again if he turned him down now. He guessed that he wouldn't, and wondered about the man he might be in the next life...wondered if he'd feel some latent regret, or if he'd live a simple, boring life.

Life free from the alluring bottomless pits of the outsider's eyes. Free from the ability to do a sort of magic most men condemned as wicked. Free from the honor he'd held himself to in service to Jessamine first, and then Emily after her.

Never.

He turned his gaze back to the Outsider, eyes scanning the serene face that waited patiently. Some shadow of nerves or hope seemed to linger around his eyes, though it could have been anything, he supposed, including his imagination.

"I will stay at your side."

Corvo shivered when thin eyebrows lifted slightly in surprise, and cupid's-bow lips parted in a clear display of shock. He decided then that he rather liked being the only mortal to make the Outsider feel something more than bored curiosity or passing intrigue.

"You surprise me once more, Corvo Attano” The Outsider breathed finally “You of all men, I thought wouldn’t…” He looked away, off into the distance before turning back to Corvo, eyes appraising. “Do you know what it means to be at my side? You will see the story of the world unfold, knowing that good men and women will die. You will witness atrocity and pain and disaster and destruction…and only rarely will you be able to gift power to a mortal who you think can change the tide.”

“I knew that Daud would kill Empress Jessamine, and yet I still gave him my gift. Can you truly spend eternity knowing that I would give power to another like Daud? Could you live with yourself, Corvo? Moreover, could you live with me?” He looked at Corvo’s hand, gaze sober.

“Not every story gets a happy ending.” Corvo said finally. Who knew what the future would have been if Daud hadn’t killed Jessamine? What kind of ruler would Emily have grown up to be without seeing firsthand the greed and corruption that could surround the throne? Such questions never would have entered his mind when he was younger, but he’d had many, many years to gain insight and objectivity.

The Outsider nodded. “No. But you will have to trust that I see all…past and future as though they are one…and know that I act for the overall good.” He smirked then, and the turnabout took Corvo by surprise. “…and for my own amusement, of course. It can be dreadfully dull, knowing the end of a story before it’s begun.” 

“Is there anything else I should know?” Corvo asked finally, the mask familiar and comforting in his hand.

The Outsider stepped close, one hand reaching to dig fingers into his hair, holding him in place with an iron grip. Corvo didn't flinch at the icy coldness of his touch, nor did he make any move to escape when the Outsider leaned in and stole his lips in a ferocious kiss.

His lips were like frostbite - so cold they burned - and still Corvo pressed back, seeking more with a hunger he hadn't felt for anyone in decades. Tongues met and danced between them, and Corvo's hands roved, grasping and holding with the need of someone starved for touch.

When they broke apart, the Outsider looked satisfied, and very faintly flushed, though his voice held steady as ever “Only that even half-forgotten, atavistically-feared deities like myself have needs…needs which are not so different from your own, I think. So what will it be? This is your last chance to change your mind.”

He didn’t have to think on the answer – he’d already decided – but instead held the mask over his heart and bowed, gaze flicking up to watch the Outsider’s reaction. “I will stay, my lord.”

Chill fingers pressed beneath his chin and drew him upright and into another kiss…this one softer, more promise than demand. A palm fluttered across Corvo’s groin in the briefest of caresses before the Outsider blinked away, only to reappear sitting casually in the open window of a castle that looked like Dunwall. 

“You should hurry and make your peace with the world.” He advised with a lazy sort of hunger that promised all sorts of things to come, and sent a shudder of want rocking through Corvo's frame.

"...for your soul will be mine in a few short days. Are you ready for death, Corvo?"

......

When Corvo opened his eyes, he was smiling. He felt the ache and drain of age weigh heavily on his body, but as he got up out of bed, there was a lightness around him that hadn't shown itself for many long years.

"My soul was always yours." He murmured. Strange, he mused, to be so looking forward to death.

.....


	2. Into the Void

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Corvo makes his way to the Void, and seeks out his benefactor.

Corvo floated in nothingness. It was a peaceful sort of nothingness, but far more quiet than he was comfortable with.

The last thing he remembered was feeling a painful tightness in his chest, and clutching at the dinner table, fingers still strong in spite of the pain. Emily was at his side in moments, and she had snapped at one of the guards to fetch the royal physician.

He remembered patting her hand comfortingly before weakness overtook him, and everything went dark. There had been a light after that, blindingly bright that reached for him, drawing him in, but something....someone held onto him. Arms wrapped around his torso, and a chin rested on his shoulder, holding him back. The ghost of lips brushed his ear.

"Not that way, Corvo."

He nodded like he'd known that, and soon the light dimmed, and the presence behind faded into mist, and he was alone.

He was alone for far longer than he cared to be, when he felt an odd tugging sensation just behind his navel. The pressure increased, and he curled in on himself, panting. He lurched within the nothingness, lungs feeling thick and burdened, his whole body distorting.

Nausea made him weak, and his minds stretched needle-thin, on the verge of snapping and casting him into madness. His very being felt pulled and compressed and squashed through something that seemed far too small to house the entirety of his essence.

Then, he saw a pinprick of light - a violet-blue light that managed to exude malevolence and benevolence in equal measure. He strove toward that light, craving heat and calm, chill and calamity, and needing everything that light offered with its seductive, pulsing glow.

He collapsed suddenly onto rough-hewn cobblestones, form and being returned to him in the span of a blink. He convulsed, body heaving in an attempt to expel the drowning thickness that filled his lungs and throat.

The Outsider was there, watching him with mild interest, seemingly unfazed by his distress. He stood with arms crossed carelessly over his chest, one foot tapping in front of Corvo, who again hadn't really taken notice of him until he spoke.

"I told you that you were mine." the Outsider said idly, lifting one hand to inspect his nails. "You still tried to go elsewhere when you died though." The tone of voice was chastising, but Corvo was too busy hacking and sputtering up the liquid that was clogging his lungs to apologize.

After he could breathe, he watched the black ichor he'd coughed up evaporate into wisps of smoke, and reached to wipe at his mouth. He paused then, in shock upon realizing that his hands were no longer wrinkled, or trembling with age.

He looked to his right and found a mirror that seemed placed for just such a purpose. He peered into it and saw that he was young - in his early thirties at the most - and dressed in the leathers and assassin gear he had worn while avenging Jessamine and making Dunwall safe for Emily. Even Piero's mask was hung securely on his belt. He brushed fingers over it gently, then finally dared to turn his gaze to his...benefactor.

When he finally looked, the Outsider was staring at him, seemingly bored. "Nothing to say, Corvo? I did just drag your spirit from the ether. Some small gesture of appreciation would be...appropriate."

Corvo shivered, and nodded faintly, daring to reach up and take the Outsider's hand, brushing lips across his knuckles in a brief kiss. "Thank you, my lord." he murmured, throat feeling raw, still. It seemed enough to placate the dark-eyed one though, and the other smiled, if ever so faintly.

The Outsider finally helped him to his feet, one hand stroking through Corvo's hair briefly. "Well enough, for the time being. Rest. Your spirit is in tatters from the journey here. Come find me when you wake."

Corvo blinked, and found himself in a bedroom, well-furnished, yet blessedly practical. It glowed gold from the warm flame of a lantern lit at his bedside.

A bookcase full of old books with strange writing called to him, but he only had the energy to brush fingers across their spines in quiet promise before kicking off his boots and shedding most of his clothes. Habit saw him leaving knives in strategic places nearby, and tucking one under his pillow. Old habits die hard, he mused as he crawled into bed.

He tried to think over what had just occurred - the fact that he was dead was only the least of his thoughts - but willpower was in short-order, and sleep sounded so...so good.

===

When Corvo woke, it wasn't due to any sound or errant beam of light. There was no sudden wakefulness, as he'd trained himself to, but instead, a luxurious, slow waking that he'd not been afforded since he was very young.

It was glorious.

He stretched languidly, mind muddled, and for a moment, he couldn't remember where he was. He jerked upright at that, trying to decide if he'd been poisoned when it all came back to him...dying, and being brought here by the Outsider.

He marveled at the memories as he slid out of bed and dressed. He wondered, not for the first time, what the Outsider wanted with him.

He'd said that Corvo was interesting, and that he wanted to watch him a while longer…whatever that meant. He’d also alluded to desiring Corvo in a more carnal way too…but surely that wasn’t just it? There must be other motives that he hadn’t yet disclosed.

Corvo couldn’t imagine that he could be terribly entertaining for long with nothing to do here in the Void, and regardless of his prowess in bed, even that didn’t seem like it was worth the effort the Outsider must have expended to bring him here.

Though…the thought of sex with the Outsider was plenty to keep his own mind occupied, that was for damned sure. He didn’t know what to expect…but he knew that he wanted every damn thing he could think of to do with the dark-eyed deity. He’d obsessed over the Outsider for years after he put Emily on the throne, and every pale-skinned, dark-haired youth that came into court caught his eye, though none of them could compare to the otherworldliness and sheer dangerous allure of the Outsider.

Emily had seemed to think him heartbroken over Jessamine – he had loved her deeply, it was true – but Corvo didn’t keep to himself out of longing for his deceased Empress. He kept to himself out of longing for the Outsider. He’d mourned Jessamine properly, and let her go, once she’d been avenged – he wasn’t really the type to wallow in grief – but he wondered if he would have kept her memory closer if the Outsider hadn’t wormed his way into Corvo’s psyche, his dreams, his nightmares, and somewhere along the way, his foolish heart.

He stepped out the door of his room, and halted abruptly, toes peeking over the edge of an island that drifted peacefully in fogged nothingness. He looked around, and frowned. There was nowhere to Blink to, and nothing he could climb.

Turning, he headed back inside his room, and paced for a few moments, thinking. A book on his bedside table caught his eye. Had that been there before? Curiously, he picked it up, examining the cover. It read: _The Void: Lair of the Dark-eyes, or Holy Afterlife? by S. Shorecost._

A wry smile twisted his lips, as Corvo mused that for him, it was certainly both. He opened the book to a random page, quite certain that nothing here was an accident, and read the first paragraph on the page.

_Theory: The Void as an extension of Will;_

_While some adhere to the notion that the Void is a physical creation of the Outsider – in the same way that a house is the creation of a builder – it is my belief that the Void is nothing less than a dimension of existence influenced purely by will._

_By the rare accounts of those who have claimed to have visited the Void, (through either nightmares, or by the strange workings of His Runes, which are said to still be found on altars made by madmen) the physical appearance of the Void is ever-changing, and seems to rely solely on what the Outsider has brought his visitors to see._

_It is this author’s opinion then, that if another were to enter the Void free from the Outsider’s will, he or she could have some small influence on their immediate surroundings. This is of course, based on the assumption that the Void is used to accommodating the will of whosoever occupies it – with the Outsider having the strongest will that exists in the Void._

Corvo shut the book slowly, mind working over the theory. Could he simply…will himself to be elsewhere? Eyes pinned to the brass handle of the bedroom door, and taking the thing in hand, he closed his eyes, thinking of the Outsider. He wanted to be wherever he was.

His left hand clenched, and he felt a rush of power, akin to what he felt when he used the Outsider’s gifts. He clicked the handle down, and pressed outwards. Opening his eyes, he found himself…elsewhere. Certainly not on the impassive ledge down into nothing that he’d first found when he tried to leave his room.

A cobblestone pathway wound its way through broken space, and grassy knolls, the blue-black night of the Void lit dimly by yellow lamps. He could see that the path spiraled down, down, past the feeble light of lamps, and even beyond the still, unwinking stars that lingered overhead. There was darkness down there, and he knew that he would find the Outsider at its heart.

He followed the cobblestones carefully, and called on his dark-vision to keep him from taking a wrong step and falling into a black abyss. Eventually, the cobblestones petered out, and wooden steps took their place. They creaked and groaned at his weight, yet some unspoken promise made him believe that they wouldn’t give out.

And they didn’t.

So slowly that he didn’t even realize it, the space was brightening with the lambent gleam of a violet-blue light. When he looked down, the steps were no longer cracked and creaking, but a rich and sturdy ash, nearly the color of bone.

Time meant nothing here, so at some point he reached the bottom, and gazed upon a simple red curtain concealing a doorway. Ducking through, he saw an elegant room, swathed in silks and cushions of deep blues that evoked the darkest reaches of the ocean. In one corner stood a huge mirror, gilt in silver and shadow, the edges never quite seeming to solidify.

The Outsider was standing before the mirror, gazing into it. It wasn’t his reflection that the mirror showed though, it was a young man, barely into pubescence, with the strangest golden hair he’d ever seen in a person, and eyes so blue they could have been carved of sapphires. The landscape behind him was a terrifying mountain of snow and ice, the likes of which he’d never seen.

Samuel had once spoken of lands far, far North, beyond Pandyssia. Lands where grass never grew, and only ice and snow held court, and where the people there had learned to survive such hellish cold. Corvo wondered if the boy were a native of that land. He saw the lad’s lips move, but heard no sound from him. The Outsider watched impassively, only the faintest cock of his head telling Corvo that he’d found something interesting in the blonde youth.

Glancing around, Corvo took a seat on a lounge, and waited. The Outsider said something cryptic to the boy, as was his wont, and he could see the child, the Outsider’s mark on the back of his hand, clutching a Rune to his breast as though it were a lifeline.

He could sympathize, really.

Once the Outsider had finished speaking, the boy’s image, and the snow-riddled landscape faded into mist, and the mirror held only swirling gray smoke.

“I didn’t expect you to make your way all the way down here.” The Outsider observed, turning and smiling faintly at Corvo. “Was your first thought truly to come see me?”

Corvo didn’t bother to answer, but stood and bowed at the waist, feeling for the first time, a thrum of nerves and anticipation. The Outsider stepped close, and Corvo shut his eyes, feeling with a shudder, the barest brush of a thumb over his mouth. He gasped when the digit pressed between his lips, and sucked the invader in, eyes opening and staring up at the Outsider with a heat that had simmered for decades.

“Tell me, Corvo,” the Outsider purred, thrusting his thumb between Corvo’s lips a few more times in a deliberately lewd fashion before withdrawing it and smearing wetness over his lower lip “What did you think would happen, when you sought me out?”

Corvo gulped, took a shaky breath, and ignored the hunger that coiled tight in his groin. “I daren’t make such presumptions, my lord.” He breathed.

The Outsider grinned and drew Corvo upright by the chin, leaning so close their lips brushed as he spoke. “Then tell me what you had hoped would happen.”

The flutter of lips against his own, and the clear order did interesting things to Corvo’s dick, and he felt himself begin to fill and stiffen in anticipation.

“I…had hoped to serve you in some of the more…carnal ways that you implied you had been lacking of late.”

The Outsider looked amused, eyes appraising. “Well now…I’ve brought you to this place…” he made a sweeping gesture around him, indicating the whole of the Void “…where you could do anything. Learn from every book known to man, taste foods from places you’ve never even heard of, even watch over your descendants as they battle their way through life, and yet…” he licked his lips, the motion not seeming as calculated as usual.

“…and yet the first thing you sought to experience…was me.” Long, elegant fingers found the burgeoning hardness beneath Corvo’s pants, and he shuddered as the Outsider stroked over firm, yearning flesh.

“How interesting.”

The Outsider whirled, and the air around him warped and twisted faintly. It made Corvo’s head hurt to watch, so he closed his eyes against the strangeness, and when he finally dared look, the Outsider was sitting in a throne of twisting shadow, curving bone, and plush cushions the color of blood. He was now wearing simply a robe of gray silk, and black trousers with the barest sheen of blue glinting off the nap.

One long leg was slung over one arm of the chair, and his elbow rested on the opposite arm, a fist propping up his head as he gazed at Corvo with no little avarice. He was the kind of vision that Sokolov would have (and likely had) offered his soul to witness but once. He could have been a painting, but for the tentacles of inky blackness that wavered around the Outsider, stretching and leaning towards him, as if to touch and stroke and pet the deity, but fearing the result of such contact.

A slow, wicked smile crossed the Outsider’s face, and Corvo was lost in the fathomless blackness of his gaze.

“Show me then, how you would please you deity.”  
__


	3. Worship

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Corvo has his first sexual experience with the Outsider and gets a bit more than he had anticipated.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please note: Starting with this chapter there WILL be: gay sex, shadow-tentacles, shadow-tentacles being inserted into various orifices, and more fluff. If that's not your bag, kindly see yourself out. This chapter is dedicated to Cosmosis, who reminded me that I had been dicking around with it for too long.

_“Show me then, how you would please your deity.”_

The words rang through Corvo’s frame, crawling along his bones, slithering through muscles, caressing over skin, until all that he was – every inch of his being – was consumed in them, and ignited in a fiery blaze.

It swept over him, causing him to drop to one knee, swaying slightly in the aftermath. His hands trembled minutely. He burned - felt the distinct rush of warmth beneath his skin as heat prickled through his body - the blush a sprawling tribute of the Outsider’s allure stained upon mortal flesh.

The words were both order and tacit permission to do as he wished. It was a heady edict; one he would glory in obeying. He looked up at the other, gaze desperate as if to beg for mercy from the vulnerability of such a command.

The Outsider looked amused, patient, and wholly entertained.

Corvo growled a soft noise that might have been a curse, but was lost amidst the flurry of fabric as he swiftly stripped off his clothes. Shirt and pants went flying with the force of their divestiture, and underthings followed soon after.

Some part of him felt like he should crawl to the Outsider’s feet, befitting his deific status, but crawling would have taken far too long, and he was much, much too hungry to allow any further delay. So instead, he rose to his feet, displaying long limbs, firm muscle, and olive skin striped with pale, faded scars.

A sort of desperate madness kept him upright when his insides demanded that he fall once more to his knees and bare his throat to the Outsider in worshipful fear and adulation. It was that same madness that urged him to cover the distance between them in three purposeful strides, to pull the Outsider up and into his arms, to devour his mouth in a hungry kiss.

The pale God made a shocked noise, before meeting Corvo’s hunger with equal fervor. Their bodies met, pressed together to slide and rock and thrust against hard heat and yielding flesh. Corvo groaned into the kiss, distantly marveling that the Outsider was warm – hot even – when the last time they’d touched, he’d felt like he’d been burned with intense cold.

He had little time for such concerns though, not with the Outsider thrusting a silk-covered erection against his own bare flesh, the sensation so sinfully good that any further thought was wholly obliterated.

Corvo drew out of the kiss with a gasp, chasing air, then swiftly returned to his worship. He rained kisses down on a pale, arched neck, and filled his hands with yielding flesh, fingertips scoring over ribs and muscle with an avarice that had to be felt to be understood.

The Outsider purred a pleased sound as Corvo fell to his knees, trailed lips down pectorals, licked along the lines of taut abs, and bit gently at the sharp protrusion of hip-bone. Fingers dug into Corvo’s hair, merely hanging on, rather than gripping or yanking demandingly as he would have expected.

Once Corvo’s fingers met the band of the silk pants, his nose nuzzled the smooth skin just above the lacings. He took one of the dangling silk cords between his teeth and pulled at it, the knot coming undone easily. Strong hands stroked the pants down the Outsider’s legs, and he moaned quietly as the jutting flesh that he had felt pressed against him was finally made visible.

Of course his cock was perfect – what deity wouldn’t have a perfect organ? – but his imagination had failed him in regards to the girth, the length, and the faint curve of shaft. Corvo panted a breath over the head, heard the Outsider make a soft sound in return, and watched avariciously as a bead of precome welled at the slit.

He couldn’t help but extend his tongue to lick at the pearl of liquid. One lick became two, and then he was sucking at the head, trying to draw out more of that musky bitterness. Fingers tightened slightly against his scalp, and the length pressed further into his mouth until the tip prodded at the back of his throat.

He gagged slightly, the Outsider withdrew just long enough for him to recover, then pressed in again, insistent.

Air came only in a thin trickle, but it was worth the discomfort, as each thrust into his throat made his insides quiver and his anus twitch. Fingers dug into the supple flesh of the Outsider’s thighs, as Corvo strove to please, clinging to sanity by a hair’s breadth.

Corvo moaned around stiff flesh, balls aching with pent-up tension, his own length sticky and shiny with precome. Part of him could have stayed there on his knees, pleasuring his God for eternity, but a twinge in his groin reminded him of other needs. Of promises left unfulfilled.

With a last few hungry gulps and swallows around the thrusting length, he dis-impaled himself from the Outsider’s member, garnering a low growl from the deity as he panted and stared up in abject worship, glassy-eyed with pleasure. His jaw ached, his balls pulsed in time with his heartbeat and somewhere in there, he let out a whimper.

Hands caressed through his hair and stroked over his cheek, a thumb flitting across his lower lip. “I do hope there’s more?” the Outsider purred, and Corvo couldn’t decide if the words were an urging to continue, a taunt, or a plea, but he nodded regardless, raw throat rasping out a request that was dangerously close to being a demand.

“Sit. Please.”

The Outsider stared at him for a split second, and he could have sworn that the deity’s eyes gleamed with interest, though they were just as dark and fathomless as always. With a smirk and a graceful motion, he sat back down into his throne of bone and shadow, the darkness around him writhing happily as he eased into plush blood-colored cushions.

The deity had barely settled, before Corvo was in his lap in a flash, knees splayed wide to either side of slim, pale hips. Erections collided, mouths met in a heated clash, and hands grasped and stroked with impunity.

Around them, darkness writhed and coiled wildly. The Outsider groaned into Corvo’s mouth, Corvo rolled his hips against the other in reply, gaining sweet friction for the both of them.

He knew that he needed to prepare himself for what he wanted next, but the Outsider’s lips were intoxicating; the feel of his skin like a drug. He would be hard pressed to separate his roving hands from pale perfect flesh, even if only to stretch himself enough to allow the God entrance.

Corvo felt the Outsider’s hands grip at his buttocks, squeezing and kneading firm muscle. He husked out a soft growl, rolling into the touch, feeling the faint sting of nails digging into flesh and savoring the sensation. His cheeks were pulled apart, and he gasped and shuddered as a breath of air touched his most intimate of places.

Something cool and slick pressed against his entrance. Startled, he broke the kiss with a gasp, jolting forward in shock. It felt like a very narrow tongue, licking and prodding at his hole, testing the resistance with a singularly disturbing press and wriggle.

“Wh-wha…? _Guh!_ ” he made small sounds of disbelief, his anus twitching with each…each _lick_ that slid cool and oily over sensitive skin. The Outsider bit down on his neck, chuckling darkly, and Corvo moaned louder, trying to look over his shoulder to see what the hell the deity was doing to him. He caught a glimpse of inky blackness swirling behind him, and groaned quietly.

“You are a demon…” he murmured breathlessly, leaning in to bite at the Outsider’s ear. Another chuckle rolled from the God, like thunder, as the thing pushed against his barrier, penetrating and sliding easily into Corvo’s body after the initial resistance.

“ _Ah…!”_

“Am I?” the Outsider asked in a low voice, laughter seeming to ripple from the shadows around them.

Corvo’s spine arched, and his head rocked back as he was invaded. Slick, smooth, and with a slowly expanding girth, it thrust into him, over and over. The supple tip thrashed around his insides, pressing and flicking and nudging the spot inside him that made him see stars with each thrust.

Corvo jerked and writhed with the motions of his dark invader, eyes closed as he panted and moaned. This was so wrong…but God, it felt so good! With a mental wrench, he finally managed to force his gaze back onto the dark-eyed deity, growled at the sight of a sadistic smile on perfect lips, and clamped down on the thing that still fucked into him like he was some sort of masturbatory toy. It was quite thick by now – about the circumference of a lady’s wrist if his judgment was correct – but he didn’t want _this_. He wanted the Outsider.

He wanted the pale, perfect cock that glistened against his own, the head flushed purple and leaking precome like mad – not the writhing mass of shadow and slick that was currently penetrating him - much as he hated to admit he had begun to really enjoy the sensation.

“ _Nnh_! I… _ah_ …I thought I was…to pleasure.... _haaaah!..._ t _-_ to pleasure you, my lord?” Corvo panted between thrusts, clinging to the deity with a ferocity that was bound to leave finger-tip bruises on pretty, white skin.

The Outsider purred a pleased sound, leaning back enough to watch Corvo writhe and jerk like a puppet on strings. “But I find you so… _interesting_ …like this. Your body does all sorts of unusual things. For example: If I do _this_ …” just then, the thing inside Corvo began to flick and rub wildly at his prostate.

“…you grab onto me tightly, and clench your teeth. Your heartbeat stutters, almost stops, and then begins anew its uneven and heightened tempo. The tendon on your neck strains out so far I think I could bite down on it…”

Damn his eyes, he was right! It was nearly disturbing, even though the Outsider’s voice was thick with admiring fascination. Corvo groaned, suddenly very self-conscious of his automatic reactions.

The Outsider cocked his head slightly, black eyes gleaming with mischievous intent. “And when I do this…” Corvo growled as he felt the shadow-tentacle increase in girth a bit more.  “…you make _that_ sound deep in your chest, like a wolf. Your member leaks fluid at an increased rate, and once your body begins to adjust, you whine…”

As if on command, Corvo felt his body slowly accept the increase in size, and a helpless whimper floated from between barely parted lips.

“You’re… _mmmh_ …you’re mocking me!” Corvo accused with a half-hearted glare. He leaned in and trapped the Outsider’s lower lip between his teeth, biting warningly. The deity smiled, taking the accusation and bite in good humor.

“I’m not” he murmured against Corvo’s lips once tender flesh was released from the bite, pulling the man flush against his chest. The thing inside Corvo slowed, thrusting and twisting in him slow and shallow. The change in force and tempo caused Corvo to shudder, lips pulling back from his teeth in a snarl.

“I’m merely observing your delightful reactions. Is that so bad?”

As innocently as the question was asked, Corvo knew it was anything but. Honestly, he wouldn’t have minded this game if he didn’t have such a desperately painful need to orgasm _right now_. He buried his face in the Outsider’s neck as he panted softly, holding himself back from the edge.

“N-no. Not so bad at all, honestly. I…am nearing my limit though” he confessed, clinging to the Outsider. “I would…much rather meet my climax with you, my lord.”

“Oh.”

The word escaped from the Outsider’s lips like a prayer, soft and reverent, tinged with the faintest bit of surprise. The thing inside Corvo stilled, slithered out of his body like an eel, then dissipated. Corvo grunted at the sensation of emptiness, shivering slightly.

He groaned quietly as they shifted, cock and balls aching, head buzzing with pleasure, and ass twitching at the sudden emptiness. He felt the deity’s organ slide along his crack as they re-situated, and reached behind himself, palming the length in faint wonder before shifting it to press the head against his entrance.

The Outsider rumbled a sound of pleasure, mouthing at Corvo’s neck, then pulled him inexorably down, impaling him in one steady motion. Whatever strange slick the…the tentacle thing…had spread all throughout Corvo’s insides, in combination with the precome that made a wet shine on the Outsider’s organ, caused Corvo’s impalement to be smooth and gut-clenchingly good.

Then, for a few moments, came only the soft sounds of male sighs and the sweaty slap of skin against skin, as Corvo began a pace over the deity which he hoped would get them both off, and soon. Hands found purchase on the Outsider’s milky-white shoulders. Fingers dug into firm flesh and rounded muscle, half-groping and half stroking wildly.

If he wasn’t mistaken, the Outsider’s cheeks were slightly darker as Corvo moved on him, his black eyes lidded with pleasure. The deity wrapped arms around Corvo’s waist, sucking up a bruise on the Lord Protector’s collarbone, and set nails against skin near the top of Corvo’s spine.

Even guessing at what the Outsider was going to do didn’t fully prepare Corvo for the erotic sting and burn of nails raking down his back. Over-sensitized nerves, sweet pain, glorious friction, and the sheer _newness_ of having the dark eyed deity thrusting into him made Corvo bellow as he came.

It was a sound reminiscent of a wounded animal – raw, primal, and visceral – and Corvo barely recognized that the sound was coming from his throat. He was lost, blinded for a brief, shocking moment, when the whole world narrowed to the pulsing of his balls as he drew taut and came, the orgasm astonishing in terms of sheer force and longevity. He thought he heard another howl too – this one resonant, inhuman, and utterly terrifying - but he couldn’t say if he had actually heard it, or if it was something his overwrought mind had created of its own volition.

After a time he would have been hard-pressed to put any number to, his world widened – first to the sticky ropes of seed that were smeared between him and the Outsider’s belly, then to the man himself, and finally, faint tendrils of awareness informed him that yes, they were still on the throne, and no, he hadn’t died, because he’d already done that once, and he was pretty sure that it couldn’t happen _more_ than once.

Though if he’d really just had sex with the Outsider, he supposed anything was possible.

It took several blinks before he could focus his gaze on the Outsider, and when he did, he stared, panting and suddenly so, very self-conscious.

The deity looked amazed, and somewhat disheveled – which was new – and strangely satisfied. “Now that was something I’ve not seen before” he said faintly, moving to slide out of Corvo’s body. Corvo protested with a wordless cry, then gasped when his breath was stolen like he’d just Blinked, as the Outsider teleported them to a low, circular bed.

It was in the same room they’d been in, but Corvo couldn’t remember having seen the bed – though covered in blue and black and violet silks as it was - it simply could have been there all along. Or the Outsider had conjured it when he tired of his throne. Plush blankets and pillows littered the surface, and for one distinctly uncomfortable moment, Corvo wondered if it was too similar to the beds used by the ladies of the Golden Cat.

He realized something then, panic rolling through him. “You didn’t…?” Corvo asked, brow starting to furrow in worry. Had the Outsider come? He couldn’t remember…and oh that was shameful, especially after all his talk of pleasuring the other.

A typical, amused expression crossed the Outsider’s face, alleviating Corvo’s worries. “Oh, I certainly did” he gestured to his spent organ with a smirk “You were just too busy enjoying yourself to notice.” His eyes narrowed then, and Corvo shivered, feeling thoroughly examined inside and out.

“At the moment of your climax, energy exploded from your body. It was as bright as the death of a star. Truly stunning. I wonder…is it always like that?”

Corvo wasn’t quite sure what that meant, so he shrugged as he settled into the plush, pillow-bedecked bed. A chuckle drifted from the deity, and Corvo smiled faintly. He was falling, and fast.  He didn’t mean to be rude, but he supposed if the Outsider was annoyed with him for falling asleep, then it was his own fault for pulling a human into the Void and fucking him stupid.

He felt fingers in his hair as he drifted off, and barely heard a murmured “…well, we’ve plenty of time to find out” before he was gone into a dreamless oblivion.

~-~-~

Corvo woke alone, and half buried under pillows. He groaned softly at the waking, and luxuriated once more in coming to awareness when he’d had exactly as much sleep as he needed. He was loose and relaxed, and…wait a moment.

He wasn’t sore at all. He’d…had the craziest, most intense sex of his life, and he didn’t ache _anywhere._ How was that even possible? Wriggling out from his nest of pillows and blankets, he looked around blearily, and found himself alone.

Damn. He couldn’t even ask the Outsider if he’d done something, or if this was just a function of the Void, or one of being dead.

Crawling out of the – frankly obscene – pile of pillows and sheets, he got to his feet with a languorous stretch. It took him a moment to notice his clothes were folded and piled neatly off to one side of the bed. He dressed quickly and headed out to see what the Void held for him today.

Regardless, it was bound to be interesting.

 

 


	4. Shadows

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Corvo learns more about the realities of being a part of the Void, and the Outsider performs some perversions on his willing captive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fuckery, tentacles, sounding, bondage. Problem with that? Kindly see yourself out. Thanks

 

There was something interesting about the Void. It hung suspended in what appeared to be eternal twilight, unwinking, unchanging stars lingering constantly overhead. On occasion, a whale would lumber through the skies, singing a gloriously sad song. It made Corvo’s heart clench painfully every time he heard it.

Corvo wondered what the whales were singing, but whenever he thought to ask, the Outsider wasn’t around.

And every once in a while, Corvo would come across something that simply didn’t quite fit.

The most current example was that of a grassy field, flowers and grass swaying in a non-existent wind, lit by the mid-morning sun. It was unusual, primarily in that there was no sun in the Void. But it _looked_ like it was lit by the sun, so when Corvo wandered into it, he could pretend that the sun _was_ just overhead, rather than the usual span of light-studded darkness. He did however have to make a point to not look up in order to maintain the illusion.

Even more unusual, was the Outsider standing in such a place. Leaning actually, over the rim of a stonework pool, staring rather intently into its depths.

"Come. Tell me what you see." The order was quiet, and the Outsider hadn’t looked up or moved in any way to indicate that he _had_ seen Corvo, but somehow he knew he was there, and that was good enough for Corvo

He moved to the Outsider's side, curiously peering into the pool himself. It was the same boy from before, with pale blue eyes and white-blonde hair. The deity was watching the youth, dark eyes narrowed in cool interest.

"He burns for vengeance" the Outsider provided in a low voice, the timbre of it making faint ripples in the water. Frost was beginning to form around the edges of the pool, and when Corvo leaned in, he could feel a breath of icy wind emanating from plains farther North than he cared to go.

He nodded after a moment of observation. He could see it. Smell it. Taste it even on the icy tendrils of wind that threatened to sink claws into him and drag him through. He leaned even closer, frowning slightly. What had happened to drown this boy's heart in anger?

"What happened doesn't matter" The deity said, answering Corvo's unspoken question. "What matters, is that he is teetering on the precipice of fate." His lips twisted into an amused, sardonic smile. 

"And you, my dear Corvo, know quite well how your choices will affect the world around you. In fact, you know better than anyone, aside from myself."

Corvo nodded again. He knew. 

"I wonder...what would he choose if he knew the future?" 

The musing, cryptic statement made Corvo look over questioningly, but the Outsider had vanished, and he'd left Corvo to worry over this boy and his hatred. A murder of crows lingered near the youth, cawing and jeering, waiting for him to drop something shiny or edible. 

Corvo couldn't see this boy's future...or the futures that would never see fulfillment...but he felt a pull. The boy was barely into manhood, yet he'd been given the Outsider's gifts to use as he saw fit. The problem with power was that without a guiding voice, it could easily corrupt its wielder. And few people made worse choices than young men. 

The Outsider didn't care about that...he was a passive observer, who wanted to be entertained...Corvo knew that he himself was nothing but sheer entertainment.

He saw the boy's fist clench, saw the fire of hatred light up his blue, blue eyes. The Outsider's mark grew warm and flared as the boy stood on an icy outcropping and extended his left hand. Corvo’s frown deepened. What was he doing? 

The pool seemed to sense his desire, and the view zoomed out, as though he were a bird who'd just taken off into flight and was surveying the land below him. Huge chunks of ice floated in frigid ocean waters. Amidst them, a whaling boat bobbed in the waves. The target of his fury was on this boat, Corvo felt. 

But what was he doing?

There! Just there in the water, huge dark shapes loomed near the surface, not quite breaching it, but close enough to make dark waves ripple and tear at the surface.

Whales!

Suddenly, Corvo knew what the boy was attempting, and the view in the pool rushed back over to him. The youth was deathly pale now, blood running freely from his nose. The vessels in his eyes had burst, staining whites a horrible reddish pink.

He was trying to control the whales with his possession ability...to get the herd to swamp the whaling boat and devour any survivors. Such anger. Such fury.

Such foolishness. 

Annoyed with the youth’s reckless actions, and acting mostly on instinct, Corvo reached towards the surface of the pool, and tapped his index finger over the boy's head, the pad of his finger making a ripple in the surface of the water. Down in and beyond the pool, the boy collapsed immediately, unconscious, his breath coming thin and weak.

Unconsciousness seemed a gift in and of itself, and Corvo got the feeling that the doors to the boy's mind was open. He looked around quickly, wondering if this were...what the Outsider wanted, or if it was even permitted. He scowled then, shaking off the worry. 

He _was_ here to be entertaining, wasn't he?

For the first time in ages, Corvo slipped on his mask, and pulled up his hood. For the first time ever, he clenched his fist, imagined himself as a crow, then fell headfirst into the pool. 

It was a strange sensation...he didn’t hit the water as some part of his brain had expected, but he felt like he was falling between worlds, and as he stretched out his arms, they sprouted great black feathers, then warped bizarrely until they were wings. A sound of astonishment came out in the form of a _'caw!'_ as he spiraled down through star-speckled blackness, and into the weak glow that was the boy's mind. 

In a barren landscape of snow, the only feature was the burned-out husk of what had once been a house. Smoke steamed from the support-beams, some of them lit from within by the red glow of embers. In the center of the building, as bits of the structure fell down around him, sat the boy.

Knees were pulled up to his chest, arms wrapped around them. His face was buried in his knees, and low, broken sobs shook him. Corvo landed on a rafter, eyeing the boy speculatively. The paternal side of him that had loved Emily so wholly roused, urged him to go and hug the child, to tell him that the world hadn't ended...not yet...even if it seemed like it had. 

The analytical side of him reminded him that this “child” had been given the Outsider's gifts. Once received, no man or woman could hope to fade into true obscurity...they were thrust into the midst of things beyond mortal ken, whether they willed it or no. 

With a flutter of feathers, Corvo winged down to land before the boy, boots touching the ground, his form returning to him in the blink of an eye. Black feathers fluttered down around him, and the boy looked up, his nose and eyes still bloody from the powers he'd recklessly tried to manipulate. 

Corvo saw the widening of eyes, and heard the swift intake of air. Fear. He'd seen it many times, on many faces, It never really changed. 

"Am I dead?" the boy said shakily. Corvo shook his head slowly - no. The boy's face screwed up into an expression of rage and frustration and agony. He choked out a sob. "Did I kill him?" he asked thinly, desperately. 

Corvo shook his head again.

The boy's fist clenched and slammed into the ground. He let out a scream that was mostly despair, and partially rage. Corvo let the boy scream, as unmoving and impartial an observer as the Outsider had ever been. 

He waited until the boy had finished his tantrum and had fallen into exhausted panting. Only then did he kneel, reaching out to place one hand on the child's head. 

"First, and most important - Do not attempt to control the Leviathans. They are His avatar, and their power will crush your tiny mind as easily as an insect underfoot." Corvo uttered lowly, his voice almost a hoarse whisper.

The boy gasped softly, nodding frantically. This time the fear in his eyes was for something that was not Corvo, and he was glad to be able to tell the difference. 

"Second - Think not only of your target, but the people around him. Some can be used, some can be frightened away, and some can serve to send a message."

Corvo was happy to see that it appeared the boy was heeding his words, eyes wide and attentive. He felt a faint tug, and knew he was running out of time before the boy awoke. 

"Finally - Remember that there are always many paths to the same goal. You could kill your target, or you could annihilate him and everyone in his vicinity. You could grant him forgiveness, or you could damn him to a life of regretting that he ever wronged you. Choose your vengeance wisely...as a bearer of His mark, your choices will affect the world over."

Corvo rose, preparing to take on the crow's form and fly back to the Void, when the boy scrambled to his feet, his outstretched hand falling just short of actually touching him. 

"Wait! Who...who are you?"

Corvo eyed him silently, then pointed to the blade on the boy's hip. "That knife there...is it a weapon, or is it a tool?" The boy looked confused, one hand falling to the blade. "What do you mean?"

Corvo turned to look out over the desolate landscape, grimacing at the thought of so much damned snow. "Your blade can kill a man. It can cut a branch. It can sever rope and gut fish. You can use the pommel to crack a skull, or to crack a walnut. So...do you call it a weapon, or a tool?"

The boy's frown lightened as he thought it over. "It's...both. It's whatever I need it to be." Corvo nodded faintly. A support beam crackled overhead, and fell between them with a thunderous crash, sending embers and sparks flying in all directions. The boy shielded his eyes from the debris, and when he could see again, Corvo was gone, and a great black crow was winging up into the sky. 

~~~~

Corvo gasped and fell backwards onto his ass as his spirit lurched back into the body that linked him to the Void. He ripped his mask off and coughed a few times, expelling flecks of black ichor onto his fist. He got to his feet with a groan, and saw that the pool was nothing more than a pool of water, tiles at the bottom depicting only stars and sky. 

"Now  _that_  was interesting." 

Corvo spun, flushing a bit under the Outsider's steady gaze. The deity was sitting on a wrought-iron garden bench, leaning back with one leg crossed over the other, and arms spread along the width of the backrest. 

 Nerves twanged, and he couldn't tell if the deity was pleased or amused or unhappy. It was kind of frightening, to not know which. To not even see that faint twist of lip that indicated amusement. 

"Trying to usurp me, Corvo?"

Dread shuddered through him, making him shake his head violently. "No, my lord. I was only-!"

"Only...what? Pointing him in the right direction?"

The tone of voice was dangerous...not angry, but it was definitely made clear that Corvo was walking a knife-edge with his actions - on one side was the Outsider's displeasure, and on the other was his amusement. Corvo teetered, steadied himself, and blinked calmly at the deity. 

"Of course not. That would ruin your fun. I was only letting him know that he had other options. Surely you don't object to me offering him something more than mere two-dimensional satisfaction in murder?"

The Outsider considered his words for a long, dispassionate moment. Then he smiled, his dark gaze intrigued. "Are those the things you considered during your time in the Hounds Pit?"

Corvo nodded, feeling his tension relax a fraction. "I considered these things with every target. Every time. To do otherwise would have been foolish and reckless."

The Outsider nodded idly as he considered Corvo's words. "And your parting words? What did you wish him to draw from that?" 

Corvo grinned. "That even a blade can serve more than one purpose. One need only consider their options first."

The Outsider hummed thoughtfully, uncrossing his legs and beckoning Corvo. Of course he obliged, drawing near and feeling a faint tug behind his navel, as though the deity was only offering him the illusion of free will. He stood just before the man, and hesitated when he felt a downward tug.

Kneel? Oh no. That wasn't happening. 

Corvo deliberately misinterpreted the subtle command and moved to straddle the Outsider's hips as he had the night prior, fingers curling into the folds of his jacket and tugging him close, until their lips barely brushed. 

"I meant something else by those words too, my lord" he said quietly. The Outsider's eyebrows lifted in intrigued query. "And what was that, dear Corvo?"

"I also meant to imply that I am a blade in your hands. Your tool. Your weapon. I am at your command, my lord. Now that you have seen what I can offer your Chosen...won’t you use me?"

If there was one thing Corvo had learned in all his years of attending court whilst guarding Jessamine and Emily, it was that honesty and allure used in tandem were excellent tools in getting what one wanted. He had once scoffed at the players of such games, but now, in service to the Outsider, he could see the benefit to them. 

Especially if it kept the deity pleased with him. Especially if it kept him interested. 

The Outsider's intrigued smile turned wicked, the expression sending a shiver through him. 

"I rather like that. Very well, dear Corvo...you may be my blade. But I think you need a bit of...honing first."

~~~

Had Corvo known what the deity had meant by “honing” he might not have gone through the rest of his day so calmly. After they had spoken, the Outsider said that he had “other matters” to attend to, and had left Corvo to his own devices.

Since he was right there, Corvo took the opportunity to go back over to the scrying pool, intending to check on Emily. He’d hoped that he could watch over his daughter for a bit, to see how she was handling his death, but the pool remained stubbornly ordinary. After a few hours of trying everything he could think of to get the damned thing to work, Corvo gave it up as a lost cause, and returned to the rooms he’d woken up in, and decided to do some reading.

The books on the shelf provided to him were fascinating, and he spent what felt like several hours poring over delicately-inked words. Everything from natural history to religion to cooking were in evidence alongside more esoteric choices such as “The Templar’s Guide to Ethics” and “Tricks and Entrapments of the Dark-Eyes” the latter of which seemed more an ode to - rather than condemnation of - the presumed depravities of the Outsider by one incredibly imaginative (and descriptive) Overseer.

In retrospect, maybe he should have paid more attention when that last book practically fell off the shelf onto his head when he was trying to reach a sailor’s journal, and taken it as the warning it was.

One minute, he was thumbing through the battered journal, and then suddenly the breath was forced from his lungs, light disappeared, and reality distorted. When everything snapped back into place, he was laying on his back on a soft bed, staring up at the ceiling of a dim, graystone tower, a single window streaming moonlight in over his frame.

He glanced around and didn’t see the Outsider anywhere…that was odd. He hadn’t accidentally Blinked himself somewhere he’d never been before, had he? No, surely the dark-eyed deity had brought him here for a reason. He thought a moment, then sighed softly, a hint of a smile playing over his lips.

Of course. To be entertaining.

He tried to sit up, but was halted by unexpected restraints. Panic drove away the last of his amusement as he looked up at his wrists. They were bound over his head by tentacles of inky blackness, trapped securely in shadow made solid. He squirmed against his bonds, and found that his ankles too were held tightly, legs splayed wide and secured to either post at the foot of the bed.

With a quiet growl, he struggled a bit more earnestly, finding that his bonds held tight, leaving him no room for escape. Damn.

With a scowl, he forced himself to settle. Struggling would get him nowhere, and would only serve to exhaust him. Closing his eyes, he sighed softly. He clenched his left hand in an attempt to Blink away from the bed, but it only made the back of his hand itch and burn. Damn.

Very suddenly, a weight was pinning down his body, and his eyes flew open in shock. It seemed his deity had finally come to start the evening’s entertainment. The Outsider was sitting on his hips, elbows resting on his knees as he leaned over Corvo, a wicked gleam in that black gaze.

God…the Outsider was fully clothed, but never had Corvo felt more consumed in a man’s presence before, or so swiftly overwhelmed with sensation like this. He could almost taste the rich, tanned leather of the deity’s knee-high boots, and his eyes caught a flash of pale skin where his jacket and shirt were artfully undone at the collar. The Outsider’s ass was pressing down on his cock, which was slowly filling now that the deity was here and being so…damn…in control. Corvo licked his lips and could have sworn that he smelled the barest hint of an ocean breeze.

They gazed at each other for what seemed to Corvo an uncomfortably long time. He was about to open his mouth to make some kind of plea or to ask what was going on, when the Outsider placed a single finger over his lips, silencing the words before they escaped.

“Have you ever made a blade, Corvo?”

He shook his head no. He knew the process behind it, but such work was best left to more skilled hands than his.

The Outsider hummed a thoughtful sound, his finger still pressing lightly on Corvo’s lips. “Yet you wanted to become a blade in my hand, did you not?”

Corvo nodded, excitement and fear tumbling through his gut.

The deity smiled slowly, a terrifying, wicked, arousing sort of smile. “Then you will have to submit to the tempering I’m about to put you through.” He sprawled on top of Corvo, their groins, bellies and chests pressing together. Pale hands reached behind Corvo’s head to clench into his hair and tilt his head up slightly so that the Outsider had easy access to his mouth.

Corvo’s cock twitched, and he panted softly, gaze dark as the Outsider traced his tongue across Corvo’s bottom lip. “There will be things you won’t like. There will be things you never knew you wanted. And there will be things that I do solely for my own entertainment.” The deity murmured, taking the opportunity to bite down onto Corvo’s lower lip, drawing blood. Corvo grunted at the injury, scowling slightly as the dark-eyed man watched blood trickle down his chin with eerie fascination.

“To send your spirit into the human world requires incredible mental fortitude. It’s a wonder your mind didn’t crumble apart when you dove in so recklessly today. To combat that, I will put you through things that will strain your mind to the snapping point. I will send you spiraling into pleasures so extreme that you will never wish to come down from them. I will temper and hone your mind into a weapon that will not shatter at the first bit of resistance it meets. All I require, is your consent.”

A shudder rolled through Corvo, and he found himself nodding. The Outsider yanked Corvo’s head backwards, exposing his throat, nosing aside the collar of his jacket. “Say it” the deity commanded, biting down over Corvo’s throat, teeth digging in to flesh almost threateningly.

Corvo groaned, eyes falling shut. “I…I consent,” He breathed through a moan. He let out a pant as teeth loosened from around his throat, and a tongue trailed up and over his chin before thrusting between his lips as the Outsider’s mouth covered his own in a hard, brief kiss.

“Good”

The uttered word made Corvo whine faintly, blood rushing through his veins. He had no idea what he’d just agreed to, and that thought on its own was simply terrifying. Combined with nerves and how pleased the Outsider seemed, it transcended ‘terrifying’ and became something more. Something fuller and richer, that latched onto his spine and flooded nerves and capillaries with sheer euphoria.  

Pushing himself up, the Outsider returned to sitting on Corvo’s hips, pale-skinned hands bracing against the muscles of his chest. A smirk twisted the Outsider’s lips, and he dug his fingertips in, raking them through Corvo’s clothing. The fabric parted like it was made of mist, and after a moment of consideration did, in fact, fall apart into nothingness.

Corvo cussed creatively, craning his neck to see that he was quite nude. The Outsider hadn’t moved from his place on Corvo’s hips, and the sudden feel of his bare cock being pressed up against the deity’s clothed ass was positively sinful. The Outsider looked entirely too pleased with himself.

“My…my lord…” Corvo groaned, hips twitching to rock against the cloth-covered firmness of the Outsider’s body. The Outsider chuckled; his body seemed to waver in time with the quiet reverberations, then he rippled apart, fading into a haze of black smoke. Corvo gasped as cool air hit his groin and thighs, uttered a curse, and scowled when the deity reappeared in a nearby chair.

He couldn’t remember if the chair had been there before, but it surely didn’t matter. The Outsider was sitting on it, rather than on Corvo, and the man had to curse the damn chair for being there anyways.

“Begging already, Corvo?”

He bared his teeth, head flopping back onto the mattress as he stared up at the ceiling stubbornly. “…no.”

Then a laugh, clear as bells shrouded in coal-smoke. “Oh? Let me give you a bit more incentive to do so then.”

Before Corvo could think, much less respond or protest or demand, the shadows binding his wrists and ankles began to writhe, delicate tendrils sprouting from them to tease along his skin like a lover might trail fingers over flesh.

Oh shit. Corvo’s jaw clenched as he tried to hold himself apart from the sensations. He knew where this was going, and while it led to bliss, it was a sincerely disconcerting way to get there; one which he wasn’t sure he was entirely fond of.

“By all means, fight how you feel” The Outsider purred, as inky blackness stroked and pet over his flesh. Two particularly bothersome tentacles were making their way up the inside of his spread legs, slithering cool and with an increasing slickness towards the apex of his thighs. Curses fell from Corvo’s lips when curious fingers of oily darkness probed at his balls, sliding over his sack and slithering around like happy snakes.

One of the things slicked up and over his member, coiling around it, and stroking him with an uncannily human grip. Corvo coughed out a plea, well on his way to begging, despite his best intentions. As if that weren’t enough, something began to lick and press at his entrance, the same way it had before!

This one…or rather the Outsider…was impatient though, and once the thing had pressed into his ass, it plumped up to the thickness of a sausage, urging a garbled “Oh fuck, yes!” from Corvo’s throat, his body defying his brain’s wishes and making him try to decide between whether or not this was glorious or wholly disturbing. He wanted to say both, but he had already begun to lean more in the direction of glorious.

The Outsider watched him, like a child watches an insect – with idle amusement and cruel curiosity – and as the thing inside him grew knobs and protrusions that pressed damnably (gloriously?) into his prostate all while the thickness stroked in and out of him, making his belly wind tight.

Precome drooled freely from Corvo’s length as the other tentacle stroked his length with that cool, oily touch. Corvo tilted his head down to watch the assault on his member with heated eyes, which widened in shock when another, very thin and supple tendril sprouted from the parent and started nudging around the head of his erection, like a newborn kitten seeking it’s mother’s teat. Breath caught in his throat when it found his slit, tapping around the inside the hole, before wriggling inside.

A shocked, almost horrified sound fell from Corvo’s lips, the words on his tongue to ask the deity to stop this madness…but then the tip of the thing thickened, and it felt like a small ball was being dragged up and down the inside of his organ. A low, husked groan emitted from Corvo’s chest, and his head fell back, cheeks dark red as he thrashed in his bindings. “Wh-what…are you…?” he panted, hips twitching, jerking arching in time with the movement of the unobtrusive-seeming tentacle lodged deeply inside him.

He gazed at his deity with lust-darkened eyes, sweat springing up on his skin, cooling the intense heat that seemed to swirl through him. The Outsider was still watching him, and Corvo felt lewd and exposed beneath that dark gaze. Prostate assaulted on two fronts, Corvo couldn’t stop the heat that rose in him, the helpless thrashing, the garbled profanity that sprang from his lips, or the way balls tightened and prepared to expel seed.

Corvo couldn’t help these things, but the Outsider could.

Just as he was about to come, the larger tentacle that still stroked his length clamped down tightly around the base of his cock, suppressing the attempted orgasm, just as Corvo thought he was on the verge of release. He snarled, spat curses and groans and pleas all in the same breath, soft whines coloring each exhale. The Outsider stood once the fit was over, moving to stand at Corvo’s head, stroking strong, pale fingers through sweat-damp hair.

“This is nothing. This is only the merest beginning of your honing, my blade” he purred, using a hand to reshape the head of the bed. Corvo found his head tilting back further, resting deep into a divot, his mouth hanging open as he panted. Eyes hazy with need could only watch as the Deity unbuttoned his trousers, and let free a long, thick, pale organ, stiff with whatever fluid the Outsider had to emulate blood. The tip of it was pressed to his lips, and Corvo sucked it in obediently, groaning deeply as the Outsider thrust into his mouth, the head of that organ aiming ever further to sheathe itself in Corvo’s throat.

His balls ached, muscles were taut with tension, and Corvo could think of nowhere else he would rather be. The thing inside his anus grew thicker yet again, eliciting a muffled cry from Corvo’s filled mouth, the tentacle inside his organ pressed further and further down, until it pressed hard on a spot that made sparks explode behind Corvo’s eyelids. His body clenched tight and tried to come again, hips jacking wildly, and a soft keen emitting from his throat when he was denied release yet again.

The Outsider started thrusting his member in and out of Corvo’s mouth, soft wet sounds filling the air. Corvo knew he should have been gagging…he should have been feeling the burn of oxygen deprivation, and the strain against his trachea, but all he felt was the erotic thrusting of a long, fat-headed member using his throat for his deity’s pleasure. A strong, pale hand clamped over his throat, the Outsider feeling his own length moving in and out of the fleshy confines of Corvo’s throat.

“You can’t die here…not while I watch over you. You can’t suffocate, or starve, or drown. The Void is my realm, and everything that happens within it is under my jurisdiction.” The Outsider’s voice was low, husky, as though he were just as affected.

Corvo’s head swum with lust, overwhelmed at being so thoroughly used and filled and taken in ways he didn’t even dare dream of in his human life. The Outsider’s words however were an anchor, keeping him from drifting too far out into this ocean of pleasure and possession that threatened to sweep him out into uncharted waters.

Corvo wondered faintly if the Outsider could feel what his shadow tentacles felt. Would the deity expose himself to such sensation? Was he suffering from pleasure the same as Corvo?

“When you travel beyond the Void, you travel without my protection. I cannot keep your soul safe in the mortal realms…do not venture out again without me at your side.” The words were chastising, faintly annoyed, and Corvo finally realized how the Outsider must have worried for him when his mind dove into the pool without a second thought. He mused, in a far separated corner of his mind why the deity would bring him to the scrying pool without issuing that warning first. But who was he to question what a god did?

His mind snapped back to the moment at hand. His body was tense and sweating, rolling into each punching thrust that assaulted his innards, gulping and humming and suckling at the stiffness that invaded his throat. 

_:Please…please, my Lord!:_ He pleaded in his mind, desperate for the release that only his God could bring him.

Though he couldn’t see it, a smile crooked the Outsider’s lips, and the tentacles evaporated suddenly into smoke, Corvo’s ass clamping down on the sudden nothingness, and a sound of protest shoving out of his throat, even as the Deity’s length removed itself from his mouth.

“Damn your eyes, don’t stop!” Corvo bellowed, length twitching a protest at the cessation of pleasure. In a blink, the Outsider was between his spread legs, nude, and pressing his length into Corvo’s slick, loosened hole. He smiled a secretive, wicked smile as he shoved home, balls meeting Corvo’s ass with a fleshy _smack_!

“All you need do is look to me for succor, and I will give it.” The Deity purred. Corvo groaned a soft complaint, then wrapped legs and arms around the man atop him. “You’re a demon” he uttered quietly, pressing soft, worshipful kisses to the Outsider’s jaw. The dark-eyed deity only chuckled softly as he rolled into Corvo’s body, one hand going to cover his length, stroking the slick organ with blessed straightforwardness.

“Only for you, my dear Corvo. Only for you.” 

Soon after those words were uttered, Corvo’s belly coiled, the Outsider’s hand stroked him with clever fingers and perfect friction, Corvo’s balls pulled tight against his body, and in a blink he was coming harder than he could ever remember doing so, his groin aching with the ferocity of his orgasm, copious streams of seed spilling over the Outsider’s fist to streak Corvo’s belly and chest. 

The Deity thrust into him a few more times, tensing over Corvo before a guttural snarl erupted from his throat and he too was spilling himself into Corvo’s body, flooding him with seed, breath panting, and black eyes clenched shut against the assault of sensation. They lay there, panting together, skin shivering and come cooling on Corvo’s skin. He smiled somewhat stupidly, feeling a thick, warm lassitude spreading through his limbs.

“If I recall correctly” Corvo said a few minutes later, once the Deity had withdrawn from his body and they lay together, basking in the soft moonlight that streamed through the window. “…for a blade to be true and strong, it needs to be hammered, tempered and quenched multiple times…”

A smile quirked the Outsider’s lips, and he rolled to pull Corvo against him, eyes closed as he held his prize in his arms. “Mmh. I believe you’re correct, Corvo. Once I think you won’t shatter, it’s back to the forge with you.”

 

Corvo was actually rather looking forward to becoming a Blade of the Outsider. 


	5. You Fascinate Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Corvo learns the price of his interference, and takes measures to correct it, much to the Outsider's dismay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More shadow fuckery, bondage, wax-play, gore. Not your thing? Kindly see yourself out.

“Ugh…”

“Did I not advise you to hold still?” 

“…”

“Oh…what a pretty shade of red”

“Ngh!”

“Does it hurt?”

Corvo gazed up at his deity with heated, desperate eyes, the cloth that had been stuffed into his mouth preventing him from actually responding to what was an undeniably smug question from the Outsider. Arching in his bonds, his chest heaved with panted breaths, pale globs and spatters of wax decorating his skin in arcane patterns. The skin beneath the wax swiftly reddened and puffed slightly in response to the heat of the mild burns that were being inflicted on his flesh. 

So much for not being able to be injured while in the Void…though he wondered if that only meant life-threatening injuries, or if the deity himself had control over that particular aspect of life in the Void, and Corvo could be injured, but only at the Outsider’s will. He’d have to think on it when he wasn’t currently writhing under this onslaught.

The newest drip had caught Corvo squarely over one nipple, the nub peaked and hard beneath the shell of cooling wax, and throbbing in time with the beat of his heart. Another candle, seemingly floating in mid-air near the Outsider tilted without being touched, splashing hot wax down over tense, taut abs to puddle in his navel. Corvo’s eyes didn’t quite close, but his brow furrowed, and a low, rasped groan worked its way up his throat. 

Shadow given form pulsed against his thigh, nudged a slick, blunt head against his entrance, and he knew by now what to expect as it pressed and twisted, entering his body easily now. He’d grown somewhat accustomed to the Outsider’s infatuation with molesting him like this, but that didn’t mean that he was immune to the sensations they caused. Even now, he grunted, sweat rolling down his brow as a second pressed up against its twin and slowly, inexorably forced its way inside as well. Somehow it was more…intense…when there was more than one of those things in him, rather than a singular tentacle simply increasing in girth over time. 

Like now, for instance, the two tentacles began to thrust into him, first one, and then the other, fucking in opposite directions. Corvo’s cock twitched and throbbed, drooling a long, shiny trail of precome onto his belly, making a rather sizeable puddle after only moments of the delicious torture. He gazed up at the Outsider, eyes pleading and heated, even as the two shadow-cocks stuffed up his hole sped up, their heads plumping and filling him even more, forcing him to feel every damned inch as they lined his insides with more of the slick, oily substance they secreted. 

Then a third pressed up against him, nudging and pressing and forcing its way inside him as well, and Corvo’s head rocked back, eyes squeezing shut as a wretched, overwhelmed groan rasped from his throat. His balls pulsed in time with his heartbeat, wound tight and pulled up against his body. A final tentacle – this one with a slim, supple tip – wrapped around the base of his organ and began to stroke him better than any hand possibly could. Crap! He was going to cum! Air huffed in and out of his nostrils quickly, unevenly as Corvo tried to maintain his grip on sanity and his impending orgasm. 

Dark eyes trailed over him, and he swore his skin prickled like the Outsider had run a finger over his flesh. An elegant, long-fingered hand grabbed one of the floating candles, and held it just over his member. Corvo’s heartbeat sped up to double-time, and he was made triply aware of the three - three!- phallic shadows thrusting in and out of him, fucking him into oblivion, and GOD! One of them had sprouted a little knob that was massaging his prostate mercilessly, and his nipples felt raw and tormented and throbbed, and slickness stroked over his cock and, and…

And then the candle tipped.

As wax splashed hot and painful against his cock and balls, Corvo couldn’t help but to clamp down on the things inside him, thighs tense and abs taut, as hips rocked upwards, and seed began to spew from his length. A wrecked, raw sound ripping from his throat as he keened through the pulses, cum streaking his torso as the waves kept shoving more and more of the fluid out of his body, until his balls nearly ached from the force of his orgasm. 

Finally, his hips dropped back down as his body went slack. Dazed and groaning, it only took him a moment to realize that the shadow-tentacles were still fucking him, if much more slowly than they had been before. He blinked muzzily, a thin whine rising in his chest as his eyes sought out his Lord. Where…?

Head lolling on his neck, he looked around feverishly, a shiver rolling through him as that thing started stroking over his prostate once more, and an over-stimulated groan rumbled up from his throat. The Outsider was nowhere to be seen, and Corvo felt his loss as keenly as if he’d lost his own hand. 

_“Master….” _He pleaded mentally, reaching out, seeking that familiar violet-darkness that kept him warm at night.__

Reality shifted and distorted, and suddenly Corvo was sinking into soft bedding, and strong arms were wrapping around his shuddering form. “You had but to call for me, my blade, my dear Corvo.” Corvo was lost and gathered up, rent and made whole in the arms of the Outsider, and gilt with the shaded tones of his voice. Whales sang, oceans raged, and in the rocking, caressing arms of the Outsider, Corvo found the deepest of sleep. 

____

The yellow glow of a gas-lamp burned dimly along an abandoned street. Frost and ice edged the window-darkened houses, hard-packed snow filled in the cracks and crevasses of cobblestone walks, and lent a slick, icy sheen to dull gray stone. 

The only trace of humanity evident in the town burned all the brighter in contrast, or perhaps in competition, with the isolate, snow-riddled city shrouded in midnight gloom. A single tavern spilled out golden light from thick, pressed-glass windows, voices and music muffled from the outside world by an ironwood door. From the streets, perhaps the place sounded like any other tavern on a chill winter’s night – filled with jollity and raucous laughter, underscored by the thin, reedy tunes of a pipe. 

The flapping of wings, and a jarring ‘caw!’ broke the relative silence of the night, as a crow landed on the gaslight pole overhanging the street. Sharp, black eyes stared down into the streets, tracking a single shadow that moved on the outskirts of the pools of light. The shadow paused briefly on hearing the crow’s call, then pressed forward with renewed confidence, making its way steadily towards the tavern. 

The front door was not the destination of this shadow though, and instead it slipped into a side-alley, and approached the tavern’s cellar-doors, taking a moment to smear fish-oil on creaky hinges to silence them before one door was lifted just enough for the shadow to slip inside and the door was eased shut, the streets were empty once more.  
But not for long.

The first indication that something was wrong, was the change in the noise coming from the tavern. Bellowed calls for ale dimmed, and the piping of a flute died with an unmusical squeal as silence spread throughout the building like a plague – first only from one corner, then spreading quickly through the assembled crowd. As shining black eyes watched the building with interest, the sudden silence was broken by a scream of terror, shrill and wracked with the sort of fear that only rears its head in the face of a gruesome death. In the face of a demon itself. 

And as though that first scream was some sort of signal, dozens of voices rose up to meet it crying out in dread and horror. Something dark splashed across a pressed-glass window, blocking out the warm glow of yellow flame that had previously shone through, tinting it a deep crimson.

The door of the tavern burst open, bodies spilling out into the once-desolate street as people frantically scrabbled over one another like rats, leaving the slow and weak behind to fend for themselves. Above the masculine shouts of abhorrence, came an eerie laughter, half-mad and triumphant with sick glee. Lamps reflected off spilled blood, casting a crimson glow on the light that illuminated the exodus, lending credence to the illustrations found in Overseer texts on damnation. 

Like waters parting before the prow of a ship, the mass of bodies split in twain, giving way to a blood-splattered blonde boy, his blue eyes wide with exultant mania, and smears of blood matting his pale locks. Swirls of snow and jagged teeth of ice erupted from the ground around him, impaling a few unfortunates who weren’t swift enough to escape. The boy held a bloody heart in one hand, the organ still warm enough to steam in the frigid air, and his left burned with the Outsider’s mark. 

The air directly around the boy was clear as day, though where any of the tavern-goers lingered, a raging blizzard blew and bogged them down in sticky snow, clumping heavy on them as they tried to flee and dragging them down until they stopped moving. 

_::Much like the witches of Brigmore held control over the plants of the earth, this boy holds dominion over the snow and ice of his homeland::_ The Outsider’s voice murmured inside Corvo’s head. 

_“He’s killing them. Even the innocent.”_ Corvo replied, no small amount of frustration in his mind’s voice. This was not what he’d intended for the boy to use his powers for when he counseled him in the burnt-out husk of his home. 

_::He has made a weapon of himself, and strikes without prejudice. It is how he chose to interpret your advice::_

The crow cawed, hopping up and down atop the light-pole in agitation. _“This is a slaughter. It is unjust at best. He has given over vengeance for utter annihilation.”_

_::This is the price of your interference.::_

The crow shrieked, beating its wings. _“Then I will set things aright.”_

_::CORVO, NO!::_

The Outsider’s demand came too late, as the crow had abandoned his perch, gliding down into the maelstrom, taking a form that the boy would recognize. Corvo, in his assassin gear, the mask made for him by Piero shrouding his features. 

He moved through the storm, untouched by its fury, and approached the boy…the young man who’d had such potential in him. Triumphant blue eyes pinned on him, and the blizzard died down as the boy fell to one knee, the bloody heart of his target held up over his head as if in offering. 

_::CORVO, STOP! I DEMAND IT!::_

Corvo ignored the heart, crouching before the boy, one gloved hand reaching to tilt his chin up. He gazed into eyes bluer than clear skies, and saw only madness in their depths. No trace of sanity remained in this youth – the price of the Outsider’s gift. 

“I killed him! Took his heart! Ripped it right out of his chest like he did to me!” 

A pained expression crossed Corvo’s face, his hand shifting to cup the boy’s cheek. “And the others? Why did you kill them?”

A hint of confusion drifted over the boy’s features, a smile twitching one corner of his lips. “Others? Those vermin? Those swine!! They drank with him, ate with him, treated him like he hadn’t done what he did! They didn’t know what he did! They should have known, but they didn’t, and the treated him like a friend! LIKE A BROTHER!”

The last was shrieked, and tears ran down the boy’s face, though they didn’t seem to ease the madness one jot. So. That was going to be how it was, hm?

_::CORVO!!::_ Panic, he could hear perfectly human panic in the Outsider’s voice, could feel the darkness gathering behind him as the Outsider made a space between Here and There. 

“Did vengeance solve your pain?” 

The confusion was back on the boy’s features but he didn’t respond. Too far gone. Worse than Granny Rags, but much, much faster. With a sigh, a hand lifted and shifted his mask to rest atop his head. The boy’s eyes drifted over his face, as though looking on the face of some benevolent Deity. Drawing the young man close with the hand that rested still on his cheek, Corvo placed a soft kiss on the young man’s lips, chaste and sweet, even as a blade pierced his belly. Familiar. That sensation was so familiar, but the sheer relief in the youth’s eyes was not. 

“Will…I see you there?” the boy asked, tears streaking more heavily down his cheeks now, as Corvo withdrew the knife to the tune of a wet sound. “Perhaps” he would not. “Rest now. You have your vengeance.”

There was a tugging behind Corvo’s navel, and he felt the Outsider in the instant before arms wrapped around his waist, yanking him backwards through the portal of darkness. His hold was not warm and comforting, but rigid, and the voice that hissed in his ear “Fool” was as sharp as jagged cliff-faces, and twice as chill as this desolate landscape. 

There was a sickening lurch as they popped back into the Void, and Corvo found himself being flung to the ground, catching himself on one knee, bloody dagger still clutched in one hand as he ducked his head, feeling the waves of anger that roiled off the Outsider. Even the Void had changed to match his mood, cobblestone pathways crumbling beneath him, the skies black as pitch, and a chill wind howled, cutting through his clothes to chill him to the bone. Fear wormed its way through the former bodyguard-turned-assassin, but he held steady in the face of his Deity’s shadow-wreathed fury, meeting his black gaze with outward calm. 

“HAVE YOU ANY IDEA WHAT YOU’VE DONE?!”

The question was snarled, and seemed a touch rhetorical, but Corvo blinked mildly and answered regardless. “He was out of control because of my influence. I merely rectified the situation” Oh, it was a cold, callous way of describing a mercy-killing, but it was also the most succinct. He had a feeling the Outsider wasn’t interested in hearing the ethics behind it. 

“You’ve ruined everything! Your _interference_ threw all the paths of possibility off-kilter!” he accused, teeth bared threateningly. The Outsider raised one hand to his temple, and for the barest moment, Corvo thought he saw a flicker of pain in the Deity’s features. Could…had his actions endangered the Outsider? The thought was somehow more terrifying than the angrily lashing shadows that swallowed the light around them. 

Then everything stilled, paused, and only the Outsider moved, one hand stretching out towards Corvo, the silver rings on his fingers glinting dully in the dim light. 

_“Out of my sight”_

Corvo only had enough time to widen his eyes in pure, unmitigated shock before the world warped once more, and breath was stolen in the span of a Blink. 

___

When reality returned to Corvo, he groaned at the ache in his skull, levering himself upright as he cast an eye around himself, finding that the Outsider had merely sent him to his room. To his room! Like a misbehaving child! With a growl, he whirled to face the door, and found that it was only a blank wall. What the hell? His anger drained from him almost instantly as he took one step, and then another, his hand reaching out to trail fingers over what was unmistakably rough stone, solid and far too real beneath his fingertips. 

“Bastard!” he snarled, hand curling into a fist to slam against the wall. Clenching his hand, he thought of the deity, tried to Blink back to him so that they could resolve this properly, and felt only a burn where the mark stained his skin. He tried again, and got a headache for his troubles. Again. And again. He kept trying, like a moth battering itself against a window to get at the light on the other side, until he felt warmth trickle down over his lips and chin, and tasted something ferric at the back of his throat. 

Dabbing fingers to his lips, Corvo stared at them blankly when they came away not crimson, but black. Black. As black as the Outsider’s eyes, but thick and rich like blood. That’s right…he wasn’t human anymore, was he? He’d not taken the time to think on such things.

Sighing his defeat, he moved to his bed and flopped down on it. What had the Outsider meant when he’d said that the paths of possibility had been thrown off? Could he really affect the world in such a way? With the death of one…power-mad young man?

_“For all my age and power, I’ve never been able to predict your actions, Corvo.”_

The Outsider had said as much, hadn’t he? Before Corvo had died and been brought here. Perhaps…he wasn’t certain, but did that have something to do with it? Frowning, Corvo let his eyes drift shut as he mused on the thought, and eventually, sleep dragged him under, into a deep, restorative sleep. 

___

He couldn’t tell how long his isolation lasted. It was long enough for him to tear through half his library, though with nothing to do but sleep and read, it could have been a matter of days or weeks. It didn’t matter, ultimately. Time moved differently in the Void…what felt like a day here could be mere hours in the lower world, or it could be a decade. Besides, he couldn’t starve, or age, so it was a moot point anyways. 

His first indication that the Outsider was no longer infuriated with him, was when he awoke to the scent of food, and found a tray of some of his favorite meals resting on the nightstand. Stuffed pastries bursting with meat, fruit tarts drizzled with honey, roasted potatoes and a cabbage and beef dish that he’d been fond of as a child. He couldn’t starve…but that didn’t mean he no longer enjoyed food. Smiling faintly, he bowed his head over the meal and sent a quiet thanks to his Deity. 

The next time he woke, the books he’d read had been replaced with new ones. 

Corvo might have been annoyed at the upgrade to his reading material – he felt like a prisoner, and he itched to get out, to see the sun (or what passed for a sun in the Void), and he…he missed the Outsider. More keenly than he had when it had been years between their visits in his human life – but…he could tell that these were gifts of appeasement, and he hoped…he hoped that they meant he’d be allowed his freedom once more. 

One hand rested on the spines of the new books, Corvo shutting his eyes as he stretched his mind towards his God. _“Please…Master. These gifts are nothing without your presence. Let me see you…let me speak with you.”_

He didn’t actually think that his plea would be heard, much less heeded, but the Deity was fond of surprises, it seemed. 

“Corvo”

He might have jerked in shock at the rich timbre of the voice that came from behind, but instead it caused tense muscles to relax instinctively. “My lord” he said, a smile touching the corners of his lips as he turned, one hand moving to rest over his heart as he kneeled. He wasn’t fond of kneeling, but for the deity….he would make an exception. He had kneeled for Jessamine. He had kneeled for Emily. 

But only did he feel true subservience when he knelt before the Outsider. 

“Thank you” he said simply, the words a shadow of his true feelings as he gazed up at his Lord, eyes drinking in the sight of him. Arms uncrossed from where they’d rested against the deity’s chest, and he watched with unveiled appreciation as the Outsider moved to sit on his bed. 

An uncertain silence lingered between them for a moment as Corvo looked for any sign of weakness or injury or ailment that may have resulted from his actions. The Outsider, for his part looked…well he rather looked somewhat sheepish, if such a thing could be said of the man. 

“Come” the order was said in tandem with a crooked finger beckoning him close. In a rare move, Corvo crawled the distance between them, sitting between the other’s legs and resting his head on one knee. This…he felt at home here. At ease. He smiled when he felt the gentle weight of a hand on his head, as fingers began to stroke through his hair. 

“The paths have changed greatly, because of your actions.” 

Corvo tensed slightly, but didn’t move beneath the hand that continued to pet him as though he were a faithful hound. “Do these changes…fascinate…you?” he dared to prompt, shifting his head just enough that he could gaze up at his Master. He managed to catch a faint look of surprise on the Outsider’s face, which shifted into soft amusement. 

“Brat” the deity accused with a fond glance, flicking him lightly before resuming running fingers through his hair “They do though, lucky for you.” 

Corvo snorted, then nuzzled into the Outsider’s knee. “It was not my intent to cause you distress” he said softly, apologizing for that, though not for his actions. The distinction was one he didn’t suspect the deity would miss, but he wasn’t going to back down. 

“No, I suppose you did not intend that.” Fingers clutched into his hair, dragging his head back so that he was forced to meet fathomless black eyes. “It would be in your best interest to avoid interfering any further though…” the God said darkly, his grip firm and gaze uncompromising. “It gave me an excruciating headache when futures shifted. You can’t see everything and everywhen, so I don’t expect you to understand. I do however expect your compliance. Is that clear?” 

Corvo would have nodded, but the grip on his scalp prevented him from moving, and it was a little distracting in entirely erotic ways. “Yes…my lord. I understand. No interference unless you’re bored.” He said the last with a grin, interjecting a bit of playfulness to the moment. The Outsider’s lips quirked in amusement and he shook Corvo very slightly, growling lightly. “You forget your place, boy.” 

Corvo laughed, hands moving to stroke up the Outsider’s thighs as he strained against the grip in his hair to lean closer. “Then you should remind me, milord”

The Outsider blinked, a slow smile spreading over his face as he leaned down, brushing their lips together in a sweet, soft kiss. “Gladly, dear Corvo. Gladly.”

_____End_____

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And with that, we reach the conclusion of Outsider's Honor. It's been a delight for me to write my own idea of Corvo's life beyond death, and his kinky exploits with the deliciously sexy Outsider, and a real pleasure to read your comments on the story. I honestly don't get a lot of comments on my work, but the AO3 crowd kept me going with this story when I might have stopped after the second chapter. Special thanks to Cosmosis for keeping me honest and making sure I updated. 
> 
> What's next for the future? Well, I've been working on a piece of original fiction called Black Feathers since...gosh...2010 or so, and it's about halfway done. It actually, er...languished for the past year when I was in a really dark place and unable to write for that story. I made a resolution to finish it this year, so come February, work on that will be resuming, and I'm aiming to kick out a chapter a month until its done. It's a high-fantasy story about a kingdom at war, and a love that springs up on the battlefield between two allies. It has beautiful bird-winged men, exciting fight-scenes, steamy romance, and a villain you'll love to hate. If you're interested, you can find it at my y-gallery.net account under the username Gyrfalconne. 
> 
> Much love to you all, and I hope you find 2014 to be a fantastic year.


End file.
